Tyler's Branch's cover story for The Atlantic last year was a watershed, bringing a flood of calls for change to the lie of amateurism. In 2013, the NCAA will see those waters rise. Especially in California, where a lawsuit against the organization is moving along nicely. The suit has 15 named plaintiffs including former college basketball stars Ed O'Bannon and Bill Russell, alleging that their names, images, and likenesses were illegally used by the NCAA. Newly opened court documents showed that the NCAA knew video-game manufacturer Electronic Arts made products with characters matching "as closely as possible the real-life characteristics" of players. The players, of course, get no cash for it. Just as they get no money from all the replicas of their jerseys sold, or the trading cards with their pictures on it, let alone the ticket sales and TV revenue. That's because the NCAA makes all student-athletes sign forms relinquishing any rights to compensation for their name or likeness. In perpetuity. The lawsuit alleges doing so is a violation of anti-trust. If the courts agree, the NCAA's house of cards could come down. The much-discussed ascendency of the super-conference will finally be at hand."

"[F.A.A.] has no proof that electronic devices can harm a plane’s avionics, but it still perpetuates such claims, spreading irrational fear among millions of fliers.

A year ago, when I first asked Les Dorr, a spokesman for the F.A.A., why the rule existed, he said the agency was being cautious because there was no proof that device use was completely safe. He also said it was because passengers needed to pay attention during takeoff.

When I asked why I can read a printed book but not a digital one, the agency changed its reasoning. I was told by another F.A.A. representative that it was because an iPad or Kindle could put out enough electromagnetic emissions to disrupt the flight. Yet a few weeks later, the F.A.A. proudly announced that pilots could now use iPads in the cockpit instead of paper flight manuals.

The F.A.A. then told me that “two iPads are very different than 200.” But experts at EMT Labs, an independent testing facility in Mountain View, Calif., say there is no difference in radio output between two iPads and 200. “Electromagnetic energy doesn’t add up like that,” said Kevin Bothmann, the EMT Labs testing manager."

Q. I’m told that your scripts are really written. They’re more like novels than screenplays.

A. Yeah, they are.

Q. Since you’re the director, you don’t need to spell all this stuff out for yourself, do you?

A. I have a writer’s journey going on and a filmmaker’s journey going on, and obviously they’re symbiotic, but they also are separate. When I write my scripts it’s not really about the movie per se, it is about the page. It’s supposed to be literature. I write stuff that’s never going to make it in the movie and stuff that I know wouldn’t even be right for the movie, but I’ll put it in the screenplay. We’ll decide later do we shoot it, do we not shoot it, whatever, but it’s important for the written work.

When I finish the script I want the script to be so good that I’m tempted to stop, I’m tempted not to make the movie, because if I just stop right now, I’m the winner. Now I do make them, but I want the screenplay to be that much of a document. I rarely look at the script after that other than to just go over the dialogue.

Q. To go back to this education that you gave yourself, if I’m not mistaken you’re not a high-school dropout, you’re a middle-school dropout.

A. True that.

Q. Obviously it worked in many ways, but do you ever regret it? Do you ever think maybe I should have gone to college? Or would that have ruined you?

A. No. The fact that I would quit in middle school just shows how little of the world that I knew. I thought the way it was in middle school would be the way it was going to be forever. I didn’t even realize that college would be different from ninth grade. I just thought it was more school.

Admittedly there’s some braggadocious bragging rights about doing what I did, but I actually think it would have been a fun experience to have gone to college. In a weird way my working at the video store, a minimum-wage job with a bunch of other people working a minimum wage job, all of us around the same age, hanging out together — that’s kind of what you get when you go to college, along with the education.

Friday, December 21, 2012

Dr. Dre "told me all the mistakes I shouldn't make in this business, being a new artist. I'm in a position where a lot of dollars will be thrown my way, and it's up to me to maintain. One of the first things he told me was that anybody "can get a mansion." He said, "You can get it. It's nothing to get. You can get it tomorrow. The best thing to do is maintain it—that's the hardest thing. Keeping it."

Thursday, December 13, 2012

"Peterson's DNA carried his parents' dreams with it, both fulfilled and otherwise. AP's mother was a three-time Texas All State Sprinter at Westwood High School in Palestine before matriculating as a scholarship sprinter and long jumper at the University of Houston. Nelson was a McDonald's All American out of high school before attending Idaho State. Nelson was granted a tryout with the Philadelphia 76ers, but back at home in Houston before training camp, his brother fumbled with a gun he was cleaning and shot Nelson in the thigh. He would never play basketball again."

"AP's progress was more than steady. He went in for surgery a week early because of a remarkable lack of swelling; because he didn't lose much muscle mass, he was jogging at six weeks on the Vikings' underwater treadmill, sprinting at eight weeks, and running on dry land at 10 weeks. Sugarman started agility rehab at about 15 weeks. But it was five months in when he started having breakthroughs.

"We were in the indoor facility and we were rehabbing on the side. He was doing some running. And the team was doing our first offseason program, and they were doing some half-gassers, where they run across the field and back. And he looked at me and said, 'Hey, let me go get two of these with these guys.' And I said, 'Adrian, no, no way.' Because I knew with competition he was going to run harder and faster. And he said, 'Listen, I'm not going to hurt myself. Just let me go get two of these with these guys.' And I said, 'Go ahead, but I'm watching.' And he went over and he blew them away. And everyone looked at each other like, You've gotta be kidding me. How is this possible? And he looked over at me and said, 'Maybe that will give them a little motivation.'""

"Maybe the NFL has evolved into such a quarterback's league, such a finesse game, that AP's DNA had to find another avenue to impress us. Or maybe his recovery from this injury actually has improved him. Maybe he really is, as his coach says, better than ever (he seems more patient, more willing to use his fullback's help, for instance, while retaining his relentless whirling-dervish-ness). It's not even a year since he tore his ligament, and with 1,600 yards, Peterson is leading the NFL in rushing by more than 300 over the next guy, Marshawn Lynch. In fact, he has a chance to join the small fraternity of 2,000-yard rushers, even a slight chance at breaking Eric Dickerson's all-time single-season rushing record of 2,105."

"After decades of decline, fewer than 14 million Americans are active hunters today. In 1991, about 1 in 13 adults hunted; today, just 1 in 18 do. Hunters are also getting older: their average age is about 46 and keeps inching up. Like the deer, they have spread far beyond their traditional habitat. More than half of hunting-license holders now live in suburbs and cities, where they face a new challenge: gaining access to hunting land.

But these difficulties notwithstanding, the actual business of hunting is booming, and it is increasingly dominated by a few big chain stores. One of the largest of the mega-outfitters, Cabela’s, saw its annual sales grow from $500 million in the late 1990s to $2.8 billion today."